Members of the New Patriotic Party (NPP) Minority in Parliament staged a walkout from the legislative chamber following a heated procedural dispute over the government’s new SIM card re-registration policy. The protest occurred after the First Deputy Speaker of Parliament blocked the Minority’s supplementary questions regarding the total cost of the nationwide exercise, ruling them out of order.
Speaking to the press shortly after the walkout, Minority Leader Alexander Kwamena Afenyo-Markin accused the First Deputy Speaker, Bernard Ahiafor of deliberately frustrating the opposition’s constitutional oversight duties. Afenyo-Markin explained that the Minority’s inquiries were aimed at uncovering the true financial implications of the newly proposed SIM registration drive.
While the Minister for Communications, Digital Technology, and Innovations, Samuel Nartey George, had earlier assured the house that the exercise would be free of charge for subscribers, the Minority argued that the public deserves to know the cost to the state.
Specifically, the Minority sought detailed disclosures on the total state expenditure required to procure and deploy the new registration infrastructure, as well as the exact number of SIM cards registered under stolen or false identities during the previous exercise to help parliament evaluate whether the policy shift is economically justified.
”If the state is funding a nationwide program, Ghanaians have every right to know how much of their tax money is being spent, even if there is no direct cost to individual subscribers,” Afenyo-Markin stated.
The walkout was triggered when the First Deputy Speaker ruled the Minority’s follow-up questions out of order, classifying them as “new questions” rather than follow-ups. The Minority Leader strongly rejected this ruling, calling it an abuse of parliamentary procedures designed to shield the executive branch from necessary scrutiny.
Citing Order 89(1) of the Standing Orders of Parliament, Afenyo-Markin maintained that the supplementary questions were procedurally sound as they directly arose from the Minister’s earlier remarks regarding the cost and justification of the program.
He concluded that the Minority will continue to resist any attempts to suppress parliamentary accountability, framing the walkout as a necessary stand against the erosion of oversight principles in the House.
Eugenia Ewoenam Osei
